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Private Wealth

• The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than 50% of global household wealth (UN WIDER Study)
• Wealth inequality in the world is extreme. The study estimates that the global wealth Gini for adults is 89%. The same degree of inequality would be obtained if one person in a group of ten takes 99% of the total pie and the other nine share the remaining 1%. (UN WIDER Study)
• There are now 946 billionaires in the world with a combined worth of $3.5 trillion, up $900 billion in the last year.  (Forbes Magazine 2007)
  

Gross World Product

• In 2006, the gross world product (GWP)—the aggregated total of all finished goods and services produced worldwide—increased 3.9 percent to $65.1 trillion (in 2006 dollars). The U.S. economy, accounting for 20 percent of GWP, grew 2.7 percent in 2006. The European Union also accounted for 20 percent of GWP in 2006. Its economy grew 1.5 percent. (Worldwatch Institute - Vital Signs 2006)
  
• In the United States GDP is $43,356 per person and in Japan it is $31,924, for example, while in China the figure is $8,005 and in India it is $3,546. (Worldwatch Institute - Vital Signs 2006)
• The U.S. nongovernmental organization Redefining Progress designed the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), a measure that better analyzes economic progress by subtracting out pollution and resource degradation, crime, and other economic ills while adding in unmeasured benefits like volunteer work and parenting. While U.S. GDP per capita has nearly doubled since 1970, the GPI grew just 15 percent. (Worldwatch Institute - Vital Signs 2006)

Agricultural Subsidies

• The U.S. and the EU distort world trade by paying out total annual farm subsidies worth $9.3 billion and $4.2 billion respectively. (Oxfam Report "Truth or Consequences")
• The Bush administration rolled out “the most generous farm subsidy package in US history” in 2002. The new funds were worth roughly $83 billion over ten years, representing an overall spending increase of 80%. The vast majority of this money goes to the wealthiest growers; the richest ten percent of US farmers receive 2/3rds of all subsidies, while in Europe, 80% go to the richest 20%.